]]>Let’s face it—some of our projects end up a little more successful than others. Sometimes we win awards and accolades. And sometimes we mess up. Design fails happen. And there’s nothing wrong with celebrating our failures, acknowledging what went wrong, learning from the mistakes, and moving on.

Earlier this month we celebrated National Failures Day so we thought why not celebrate a few favorite fails from one of our favorite subreddits (r/CrappyDesign). With that, we bring you 14 design fails that’ll make you go, “Uhhhh.”

]]>https://www.howdesign.com/uncategorized/design-fails-national-failures-day/feed/05 Things to Avoid When You Think You’re Underpaidhttps://www.howdesign.com/design-career/salary/what-to-do-when-youre-underpaid/
https://www.howdesign.com/design-career/salary/what-to-do-when-youre-underpaid/#respondMon, 19 Aug 2019 04:57:00 +0000http://www.howdesign.com/?p=240392It can be a shock to find out you earn less than someone with the same job title and experience level. If you’re in this situation, it’s up to you to make a case for a raise, but you have to be wise in your approach.

Few employers in the creative field—or any industry, for that matter—are transparent about what workers earn. In a survey from 2017 by The Creative Group, only 11 percent of the advertising and marketing executives interviewed said their company has an open salary policy. The rest do not publicly discuss compensation, and of this group, the majority (61 percent) feel doing so would decrease staff morale.

Whether or not your company discloses what employees make, it can be a shock to find out you earn less than someone with the same job title and experience level. If you’re in this situation, it’s up to you to make a case for a raise. But you have to be wise in your approach. Here are five things to avoid when you are underpaid and go to your boss requesting higher pay.

1. Don’t rant and rave.

Everyone wants fair compensation, but the company doesn’t owe you anything outside of the terms of your contract. So don’t storm into your boss’s office and demand more money or air your frustrations on social media. Your next step requires thought and patience. Take time to outline why you warrant a raise—i.e., how your actions have benefitted the company’s bottom line.

2. Don’t assume.

Hopefully your boss knows the depth of your design skills and business acumen, but don’t count on it. To merit more money, you likely need to remind your manager of the value you bring to the table. For example, perhaps you played a large role in landing a recent account. Keep a running log of specific wins and additional tasks you take on, as well as compliments you receive from clients and coworkers.

3. Don’t compare yourself to colleagues.

You may feel you deserve the same pay as similarly skilled coworkers, but do you know the full extent of what they do and their contributions? It’s much wiser to base your request for a raise on objective assessments, such as the going market rate for your skills, versus assumptions. The Creative Group Salary Guide is one helpful resource for determining compensation ranges for design positions. Your boss could likely articulate why you don’t earn as much as your officemate, but it’s harder to argue against data.

4. Don’t be inflexible.

Let’s say you’ve made an airtight case for why you deserve a higher salary. Your boss still has to find room in the company’s budget to pay you more, and sometimes that money simply isn’t there. If you counter with an ultimatum (“Give me $5,000 more or I’ll quit!”), you’re taking a huge risk that might leave you unemployed. It’s much better to be open to negotiation and alternatives, such as a one-time bonus, step increases or non-monetary perks, like flextime or telecommuting.

5. Don’t back down.

Smart managers will do what it takes to keep top workers happy in their jobs, and that includes updating compensation packages. But what if you make a solid argument for a raise and your boss comes back with a big fat “no” without a valid explanation? Before discussing salary with your boss, know what your options are. If your employer refuses to pay you what you’re worth, it could be time to make your next professional move.

Feeling underpaid—and underappreciated—is a drag on morale. As the driver of your own career, it’s up to you to lobby for the salary you deserve. And to get what you want, being savvy literally pays off.

Years ago, I worked for a guy—very briefly, I’ll add—who insisted on what he called “target practice” whenever our creative team gathered to share ideas. One person would present an idea, and the rest of us were expected to take wild shots at every statement made by the presenter.

The manager assumed his shoot-to-kill technique would build stronger creatives with stronger ideas—but instead we quickly learned to keep ideas to ourselves or render them so colorless and harmless there was little at which to take aim.

Your team probably doesn’t have this guy’s guns-ablazing approach to creative criticism, but take a moment to consider how ideas actually are shared and examined in your workplace.

Is idea-sharing a positive, free-flowing and focused experience? Or do team critiques too often become a war of words, careening off topic and veering toward carnage?

An informal, uninhibited work environment is great for creativity’s sake, but totally unstructured feedback on ideas usually results in fear, fights and even failure. If your team members struggle with presenting and probing each other’s ideas, try putting a critique method in place.

Here’s a template for active yet affable creative criticism:

How Creatives Can Critique Each Other Without Choking Each Other:

1. Tee up.

Presenter lays the groundwork for revealing her or his idea by restating the problem that needs to be solved, along with previously determined goals and objectives.

The presenter explains why the idea needs to be considered; Step 2 deals with what the idea is and how it solves the problem.

2. Put up.

Presenter provides a succinct, insightful overview of the idea, using the creative brief and brand elements as foundation. Focus on purpose, audience, aesthetics and attributes, along with potential issues and obstacles.

The presenter explains the idea in her or his own way, of course, but stays firmly planted in the idea and how it solves the problem.

3. Shut up.

While overviewing the idea, presenter has the privilege of sharing without interruptions, questions or comments. Team members remain quiet and avoid any eye rolls, sneers and other body language signaling resistance or rejection. They simply listen, taking notes and making lists of questions, concerns and suggestions.

4. Ask up.

When the presenter ends, questions begin. Just questions—no comments please. Here’s the opportunity for team members to clear up any confusion they have about the idea, drill deeper into specifics and move past any assumptions they’ve made along the way.

The best questions are open-ended ones requiring an explanation rather than a simple “yes” or “no.” Ideal questions usually begin with the W’s: Why, Who, What, When, Where. Effective answers best begin with “Because…”

5. Open up.

Once questions are answered, the floor opens for comments and conversation. The presenter, a key decision maker or another person sets a time limit for this segment and helps facilitate discussion.

Keep feedback on-topic, specific and constructive. Avoid personal attacks—focus on the idea, not on the presenter. Solutions and suggestions should accompany criticism.

6. Measure up.

Next, the group checks the idea against benchmarks not already covered, making certain it meets goals and is in keeping with the voice and style of the brand.

7. Wrap up.

After discussions, presenter gathers all agreed-upon recommendations. Actions and timelines are determined before session adjourns.

Every creative group has different chemistry and composition, of course, so modify and massage this method to fit your culture. Try various approaches, tweaking as you go. Your goal is an environment where ideas are expressed and examined with clarity and conviction—along with a healthy dose of civility!

]]>https://www.howdesign.com/design-career/creative-criticism-choking-each-other/feed/018 Artistic Cat Gifs to Celebrate International Cat Dayhttps://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/18-artistic-cat-gifs-internationalcatday/
https://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/18-artistic-cat-gifs-internationalcatday/#respondThu, 08 Aug 2019 04:39:59 +0000http://www.howdesign.com/?p=240168The internet would not be complete without cats. Check out these cat gifs from artists, designers and illustrators from all over.

The internet would never have succeeded if not for cats. The internet is not complete without cats. Cat videos, cat memes, and of course, cat gifs — we need them all. So to celebrate #InternationalCatDay, we rounded up some of our favorite artistic gifs involving cats. Anyone can film their cat and upload it to YouTube, but these illustrators and designers went the extra mile to actually create these creature cuties.

And because International Cat Day will come and go, we’ve linked to the websites of each artist so you can take a look at the wide array of talent each of them possess beyond cat gifs.

To all of the motion designers out there: Thank you for your cat gifs.

To all the cats out there: Thanks for making internet culture just a little bit weirder.

1. 100% Soft in Los Angeles, CA

“Truck Torrence lives in Los Angeles and makes kawaii pop art under the moniker 100% Soft. He is the designer of the official emoji for Star Wars and creator of the Kaiju Kitties. His work has been shown at Gallery 1988, Bottleneck Gallery, Giant Robot, & Spoke Art.” See more…

2. Agatha Yu in San Francisco, CA

“I design software to extend humans’ senses. Because there is nothing better than thinking the unthinkable thoughts (aside from butter). Currently @Oculus.” See more…

3. Alexander Lansang in New York City

“Alexander Lansang is a freelance Illustrator/Graphic Designer/Animator based in New York City. He is a doodler with an overactive imagination, and loves to collect comics and watch cartoons.” See more…

]]>https://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/18-artistic-cat-gifs-internationalcatday/feed/0The Fowl Language and Fun Design of Effin’ Birdshttps://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/behind-the-design/the-fowl-language-and-fun-design-of-effin-birds/
https://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/behind-the-design/the-fowl-language-and-fun-design-of-effin-birds/#commentsThu, 18 Jul 2019 13:28:18 +0000https://www.howdesign.com/?p=249702NSFW WARNING: this post about Effin’ Birds contains birds and foul language that some people might deem inappropriate. Did I first encounter Effin’ Birds on Tumblr or Twitter? I can’t recall where but I do remember how much I laughed out loud. Lavishly illustrated birds greeted me with their beautiful plumage, juxtaposed with cursing and …

]]>NSFW WARNING: this post about Effin’ Birds contains birds and foul language that some people might deem inappropriate.

Did I first encounter Effin’ Birds on Tumblr or Twitter? I can’t recall where but I do remember how much I laughed out loud. Lavishly illustrated birds greeted me with their beautiful plumage, juxtaposed with cursing and wise-assery set in sophisticated typography. Effin’ Birds, the popular social media account with a forthcoming book, is produced by Aaron Reynolds, creator of Swear Trek’s animated GIFs and Bat Labels, the nostalgic look at the Batman TV series and its typography. Reynolds has created social media accounts with respectable followings, each with their own brand of comedy. So what’s the secret? Perhaps it’s geography. Reynolds lives and works in Canada, where one comedian after another has exploded into the mainstream: Wayne & Shuster, SCTV (John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short), The Kids in the Hall, and Jim Carrey, as well as modern day comedy hero Ryan Reynolds.

Even though he’s busy with a treasure trove of work, Reynolds had time to share his thoughts about developing the look and feel of Effin’ Birds, what it takes to match just the right typeface with a grumpy-looking owl, and how photography and film play a role in his design decisions.

Background

“I went to school for photography because I took delight in well-composed images, particularly in movies. I wanted a stronger background in how and why—not just the ability to appreciate George Hurrell’s portraits, but to be able to deconstruct what makes them special and apply some of the parts of that magic to my own work. Some of that was the technical side, but a lot of what I learned was how to evoke an emotional response in people.” For a while, Reynolds worked as a software instructor, an experience he feels also helped shape his abilities. “Teaching film editing and audio production both had an aesthetic component, but I often felt it was either secondary to or a component of the emotional connection.” Look and feel matters a lot to him, but there should be some restraint too. Recounting the way that cinematographer Conrad Hall worked on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Reynolds praised the Oscar winner’s ability to obscure objects and cover things up in order to, as he puts it, force you to fill in the blanks without missing a thing. “Instead, the audience relates even more strongly, because their own mind is filling in what they expect or want to see. When it comes to Effin’ Birds, when I write a joke it always starts from something that has irritated me, and then my process is to slowly strip away every bit of identifying information that I can while keeping the meaning intact. What I end up with are vague pronouncements that feel specific to the reader, but their minds substitute their own situations for mine.”

Birds, Fonts, Branding

Looking at design after design, you might ask yourself, Where does Reynolds find the wonderful birds? “The first batch of 60-odd birds was part of a beautiful vintage stock art package from Tom Chalky. I say Hi every once in a while—Tom offers a subscription service for stock art and fonts, and I signed up for it immediately because it has such a distinct personality. When Effin’ Birds started to become A Thing and I realized I was going to run out of birds in a hurry, I did a deeper dive into the source material. Tom got these birds from a book series edited by Charles Knight in the 1800s, and once I went far enough down the research rabbit hole I found that some of the images came from woodcuts by Thomas Bewick.” Needing more birds, Reynolds sought out Bewick’s A History of British Birds.

Glancing over the art and merchandise, you’ll notice about three to four fonts. Hunting for the right fonts—like hunting for the right birds—turned into its own passion project. “I don’t remember how I found the first typeface, which is Fairy Tales by Artimasa. I remember spending a lot of time looking at fonts and trying to match them to that grumpy-looking owl, and when I came across Fairy Tales it was ideal. For the color images, I wanted to match the lettering on the original John James Audubon prints. I ended up down another rabbit hole of engraver’s fonts, and did some reading on pairings. I ended up with Elegy from ITC and Sackers Roman from Monotype, which I thought looked great together and were also a good match for the script and block lettering of Audubon’s engraver. When I started doing my own scans from A History of British Birds, the nature of the source material was yielding a different kind of line from Chalky’s scans—more bleed of the ink into the surrounding paper, a somewhat more handmade look. It was still an OK pairing with Fairy Tales, but I wanted to take the opportunity to explore some other styles. I looked at dozens of hand-lettered options, and the winner was Brixton, again by Tom Chalky.”

When it comes to Effin’ Birds as a brand, Reynolds says it happened, but in a natural way. Asked about brand strategy, identity, values, promises, stakeholders, and positioning, he said, “I’m sure I have established all of those things in a subconscious way—I always do, that’s how I know what decisions to make. But I haven’t actively written them out or sat down to make a Mission Statement.”

Overhead, Sustainability & Merchandising

One gets the impression that for Reynolds, the process of creating Swear Trek or Effin’ Birds is a reward in and of itself. And then there’s his latest endeavor, Your Pal James, with action figures doing all kinds of absurd and entertaining things. But none of these activities are his full-time job. He produces podcasts in Ontario, Canada, work that (believe it or not) allows him to transfer skills. “One of the skills I’ve sharpened up the most is messaging: getting across the core idea in the fewest words, opening up to the fewest objections. I draw from that a lot in my podcast projects. Canada 2020 brought me on board for what was originally supposed to be a three month gig, to help them set up a podcast studio, design some shows, bring in a producer and engineer set them on the path to self-sufficiency. Once the network was humming along, I took on the challenge of the flagship project No Second Chances, where I did the field recording, photography, editing and mixing. There are about four episodes remaining to be aired, and then I will be Mary Poppinsing along to the next project.”

Crowdfunding can go a long way, helping cover his overhead—no matter what project he’s working on now or later. “Patreon gives me the freedom to do projects that have no commercial prospects. Your Pal James is a great example: it’s just a bundle of joy. And it keeps projects like Swear Trek alive—they have not just time costs but software and tool costs.” And then, there’s the merch, another form of revenue. “The store has massively over-performed. And I almost didn’t launch the store! Originally I followed the template of what I had done with my other projects: find a really sticky gag and merchandise it.” Out of the gate, Bat Labels and Swear Trek merchandise sold respectably, but he sold around 30 shirts with a single design from Effin’ Birds. Reynolds said he was “gutted” by the experience. “I thought I had made a gigantic miscalculation, and that Effin’ Birds was a flop from a business perspective. My friend Nick Renaud kept trying to convince me to run Effin’ Birds merchandise on demand rather than on campaigns like I had been doing—Cotton Bureau was built on the idea of Kickstarter-esque campaigns that result in old-school screen printed tees—and we finally got to a deal I couldn’t refuse. All I had to do was prepare the artwork and Nick would manage the store, for a percentage of the profits. And because we were printing stuff on-demand, there was no risk of having 2000 unsold mugs in my garage.”

Profits & Growth

To this day, Reynolds puts out an amazing number and range of designs, but consumers seem to have their own favorites. “What’s fascinating about the store’s success is that there are only a few breakout designs—the pin that says I AM A GODDAMNED DELIGHT, the mug that says I BET THIS PROBLEM WILL GO AWAY IF WE HAVE MORE FUCKING MEETINGS—and a lot of items that sell 30 units. Running a campaign for two weeks and selling 30 units is a disaster, but having a few dozen designs that sell 30 each is a success. What I hadn’t figured out is how individual each Effin’ Bird’s resonance is, and that trying to find the ‘universal’ one was a wasted effort. The store has done well enough that aside from myself and Nick I also have Ryan Matthews doing my shipping and Joe Burt doing customer service.”

If you follow Effin’ Birds on social media and own the merch, what else do you need? A copy of Effin’ Birds, A Field Guide to Identification, of course, a book promoted as “the most eagerly anticipated new volume in the grand and noble profession of nature writing and bird identification.” A monograph that had humble beginnings, then exploded into something special. “Originally the book was a crowdfunding campaign through Unbound in the UK. It’s a neat model because unlike most Kickstarter-style campaigns for books, it includes UK book store distribution. Once the campaign was successful, we started getting nibbles from publishers for the US rights. Ten Speed Press came along with both a strong offer and a great understanding of what Effin’ Birds is.” For this Effin’ Birds fan, there’s only one way to describe exactly what it is: plenty of fun with enough vulgarities to make you cry foul—or cry laughing.

Edited from a series of phone and email interviews.
Images courtesy of Aaron Reynolds and Effin’ Birds.

]]>https://www.howdesign.com/design-creativity/behind-the-design/the-fowl-language-and-fun-design-of-effin-birds/feed/1Behind the Art: Liam Sharphttps://www.howdesign.com/featured/liam-sharp-green-lantern-art/
https://www.howdesign.com/featured/liam-sharp-green-lantern-art/#respondTue, 16 Jul 2019 22:41:32 +0000https://www.howdesign.com/?p=249703Liam Sharp has been working in comics since the 1980s, making a name for himself as an artist for 2000 AD, “the cutting edge powerhouse of British comics.” Sharp eventually landed with “the big two” comic powerhouses, Marvel and DC. Fans of DC’s Wonder Woman will recognize his name and his distinctive style from that …

]]>Liam Sharp has been working in comics since the 1980s, making a name for himself as an artist for 2000 AD, “the cutting edge powerhouse of British comics.” Sharp eventually landed with “the big two” comic powerhouses, Marvel and DC. Fans of DC’s Wonder Woman will recognize his name and his distinctive style from that title’s run during the 2016 DC Universe Rebirth.

Little trick I’ve found that works very well for me – I’ve been doing it the last few years. I keep all of my pages in order on my phone, and look through them before I go to sleep. In the morning I’m all ready to go on the next one. It also helps to visual gauge my progress. pic.twitter.com/Pl9DiQBhv4

These days, Sharp’s creating lavish art for DC’s The Green Lantern, written by another 2000 AD alum, Grant Morrison. Since The Green Lantern’s new run debuted in 2018, each issue has garnered favorable review after favorable review, with positive reader feedback shared on social media. On Twitter, Sharp shares his own advice about process and methods. He also dishes out words of encouragement for not only the aspiring comic book artist but also anybody who works in a creative industry.

Cover to DC Nation featuring Green Lantern, by Liam Sharp.

Sharp took time out of his busy schedule to talk about craft, inspiration, and finding your own style.

Wonder Woman Reimagined

Sharp calls his experience on writer Greg Rucka’s run of Wonder Woman “wonderful” and looks back fondly on the work, but calls landing the job kind of random. “I had no idea that it was going to happen. I had become aware through a friend of a friend that the work was available. I didn’t immediately think, I could do that book.” He stepped away from it all during the holidays and when came back to his studio, he looked at the Red Sonja art he created, titled Mouldering Stone. “Lots of symbolic imagery, a statue of death in the background that was wrapped in vines. It’s one of the rare pieces that I’m still really proud of—her haughty expression, the sense of story, who has she just killed? The way she’s looking right at us, her possible next victim. The suggestion that we’re maybe in some kind of maze, or labyrinthine ruins… The symbolic death statue… all very Barry Windsor-Smith!”

Red Sonja art titled Mouldering Stone by Liam Sharp.

Looking at that Red Sonja piece while contemplating the Wonder Woman work, Sharp had an epiphany. “It suddenly occurred to me that you could draw Wonder Woman in that kind of style, and make it very romantic and mythic. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I went to bed that night, and had a dream about superheroes and the next morning was convinced that I had to pursue it. I was completely excited. I sent Jim Lee a text with a picture of that Red Sonja piece, and I said, ‘You could do it like this.’ Jim really went to bat for me at DC.”

Wonder Woman number 1, cover by Liam Sharp.

Creating a Space Opera

Having completed a wonderful run on Wonder Woman, Sharp took on the Emerald Knight, the Intergalactic Space Cop Green Lantern. With Grant Morrison writing and Liam Sharp supplying the art, the two have created a sprawling Space Opera in the latest run, titled The Green Lantern. “Space operas in science fiction are those vast sagas in far-flung locations across multiple planets and often involving the rise and fall of various sentient cultures. Star Wars is a classic Space Opera. In literature you have books like Frank Herbert’s Dune, Iain M. Banks’s Cluster series, or Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep.” For Sharp, The Green Lantern “absolutely encompasses these themes and that kind of grand scale.” For readers and fans, it becomes evident right out of the gate in issue 1. The hardbound edition collecting the first few issues of The Green Lantern is available in case you want to read number 1 and beyond in one sitting.

The Green Lantern number 1, cover art by Liam Sharp.

“Grant and I are both huge fans of Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s Starlord, which was itself a love-letter to literary space operas.” A student of the medium, Sharp also cites Jim Starlin, whom he calls the Master of the Space Opera. Writer-artist Starlin created Marvel’s Thanos, launched into the mainstream thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and Avengers movies. In addition to Marvel’s run of space opera titles, Starlin also worked on DC’s New Gods, Adam Strange, and Stormwatch.

The collaboration with The Green Lantern’s writer Grant Morrison, is one built on teamwork, evident when talking with Sharp about his artistic process and just how far the art gets pushed one way or another. For Sharp, the look and feel comes from the writing. “I don’t try to push further than what’s in the script. I want to build universes that feel rich and feel real, that are not shiny and plastic. Like when I did the shot on Oa, I wanted it to feel like a real precinct, with functional areas. But I also wanted it to twinkle, and have multiple layers, and styles of architecture, but also twinkling and beautiful. I will think about the environments, and a planet inhabited by an alien race that’s largely insectile, making it in an intelligent way. Grant, really, at this point, he writes with my art in mind. He trusts me to get it done. I try to interpret his script as clearly as possible—you can’t grandstand. I don’t take each page as an opportunity to show off, do one pin-up after pin-up It’s about the character and the story.”

Style Finds You

The truth is your style finds you, so don't force it. Try to hit the beats and be of service to the story, not the other way round. 2/2

The path to becoming a comic book artist is different for each artist. For many, it will take years of practice, trial and error, and long hours at a desk. Some have their own style, and others will search for a style their entire career by mimicking their heroes or predecessors, or mixing and matching styles. While it’s definitely a way to work, it’s not necessarily the way to work. On Twitter, Sharp has been vocal about style, namely, finding and defining your own. He says that he’s been guilty of imitating “with varying degrees of success” which he admits, have always been folly. “Usually it’s down to a matter of confidence and either not liking your own style, or feeling you lack one that is hard-hitting, current or relevant. Back in the late 80s I did a Judge Dredd story for 2000 AD that I poured everything I had into. I was spending three days on each page, and when I see that work now I think it was the prototype of what I’m doing currently.”

Recounting those events, Sharp remembers his story appearing in 2000 AD when Simon Bisley’s also did—in the very same issue. “Simon became an instant sensation, and I knew right away he would totally eclipse my efforts, making my work seem suddenly very old-fashioned. His art was heavy-metal-on-paper, and it seemed to channel so many of my own artistic heroes—Frazetta, Giger, Corben, Neal Adams, Brian Froud—and honestly, my heart just sank. The result was I had a creative wobble, and lost all faith in my own style. By second-guessing myself I derailed everything I was doing.” Shortly after that, Sharp says he jumped from style to style “trying to find a good fit.”

The search continued for him, culminating with work done at Marvel. “My Man-Thing run came somewhat close to what I now consider my own style, but it was also heavily influenced by Jeffrey Jones and Bill Sienkiewicz. Actually, I think the first time I really consolidated my own style was in Gears of War which I drew for Wildstorm and Epic. There were hints of it a little earlier on in The Possessed with Geoff Johns—another Wildstorm title—but Gears was where it came together. When I came to drawing Wonder Woman I resolved to stick to something approaching the Red Sonja piece, and not be distracted by other styles—basically to draw it as well as I possibly could!”

Journey to Style, Journey to Self

Sharp’s years of experience combined with hard work and determination, have brought him to where he is today. But style, being cool, being current, none of that matters to Sharp, who lives by his own creed. “Draw as well as you possibly can. Draw well, tell the story clearly. You are the cameraman, and all the characters—you literally have to act every role and transpose that onto paper. You’re the lighting technician, the choreographer, the set designer, the production designer. You have enough jobs to worry about first! Concentrate on the world-building, the acting and just draw as well as you humanly can. Your style will find you.”

If and when you find your own style, comparing yourself to others is “a bad idea” according to Sharp. “Be inspired by your heroes, don’t judge yourself against them—in that lies despair and folly! Of course that’s easier to say than to do, but it’s a good rule of thumb I think! You can learn a lot by imitation, but you can’t ever be that other person. You have to be the best you.”

]]>https://www.howdesign.com/featured/liam-sharp-green-lantern-art/feed/05 Essentials of Masterful Product Packaginghttps://www.howdesign.com/featured/5-essentials-of-masterful-product-packaging/
https://www.howdesign.com/featured/5-essentials-of-masterful-product-packaging/#respondTue, 09 Jul 2019 04:16:53 +0000https://www.howdesign.com/?p=249698Discover the five essentials of masterful product packaging and how designers can put a premier spin on each one.

]]>Wooing the customer doesn’t end with a sale. You want to keep your customers coming back for more and sharing their positive experience with friends.

Packaging is an integral part of the whole customer experience, and should never be left as an afterthought. According toone study, 72% of consumers said that packaging design influences their purchasing decision. Wow, that’s a lot of power.

But, how do you get the most from your product packaging? Here are five ways to get your packaging noticed:

1. Be Creative

Ever walk down the makeup aisle at your local pharmacy? It’s no doubt filled with dozens of beauty options. Unless you’re loyal to a particular brand, you’ll likely gravitate to the one that stands out from the others. It might be a bold use of colors and patterns or it’s minimalistic, yet sophisticated custom cosmetic boxes. Maybe it’s just a catchy name. In any case, creativity is one of your best hopes to stand out in a noisy marketplace.

2. Make it Memorable

Everyone enjoys feeling special. When done right, product packaging can give customers a gift-like experience. The key is to make it personal. And it doesn’t take much. It might be as simple as enclosing a hand-written thank you note, or offering discounts on future purchases. Let the customer know how much you appreciate their business.

3. Use Product Packaging to Build Your Brand

Packaging represents your brand, so make it count. Your logo is one of your most important marketing tools, so start by prominently displaying it on your custom box. From there, promote your brand inside the box. You can wrap items in brand-colored tissue paper or go a step further like Home Chef, the meal delivery service, which had their logo printed on their inner bags, and even the ice packs.

And while you’re at it, toss in a couple of logo stickers or another small extra, such as pen imprinted with your brand. It’s all about getting your brand front and center to build credibility.

4. Don’t Forget the Practical Side

Be practical. I know, I know, it’s not as much fun or glamorous as deciding on the size and placement of your logo or figuring out how to incorporate your brand colors into your packaging, but the practical side is just important. If your goods arrive broken, it doesn’t matter how pretty your packaging is.

Figure out how your packaging will protect your goods. If you’re shipping products, you’ll want to start with sturdy custom printed boxes. You can further cushion your items by choosing the right void fill, such as bubble wrap, kraft paper or air pillows.

5. Keep It Green

Nowadays, eco-friendly isn’t some buzz word you can just pay lip service to. Consider that over one-sixth of the waste in U.S. landfills is made up of plastic packaging. Yikes! People expect companies to make a concerted effort to take care of the environment and will notice what type of packaging you use to house your products.

There are steps any company can take with their packaging. Try to use compostable or at least recyclable materials. These materials are also easier to dispose of, so your customers will be happy.

Rise Up With Great Product Packaging

Go ahead and have fun with your product’s custom packaging. It’s a great way to build your brand and set yourself above the competition. Companies including T-Mobile, Adidas, MetLife, Pandora, Marriott Hotels, and small businesses nationwide choose Refine Packaging for their custom packaging needs. Visit Refine Packaging online to learn more.

]]>https://www.howdesign.com/featured/5-essentials-of-masterful-product-packaging/feed/0A World of Typography: Creating Typefaces for Multiple Writing Systemshttps://www.howdesign.com/how-magazine/world-typography-creating-fonts-multiple-languages/
https://www.howdesign.com/how-magazine/world-typography-creating-fonts-multiple-languages/#commentsMon, 08 Jul 2019 05:47:35 +0000http://www.howdesign.com/?p=236405Industrious type designers are creating typefaces for non-Latin scripts and languages across the world that are typically lacking in typeface options.

]]>Industrious and ambitious type designers are creating fonts for not only their own cultures, but those in nearby countries—or ones thousands of miles away.

Today we have access to thousands and thousands of fonts, especially when it comes to Latin scripts. Writing systems across the Americas and Europe, including English, French and Spanish, among others, make up a majority of the typefaces in existence. But the world needs more non-Latin scripts.

Some cultures have only a few digital typefaces to choose from—or none whatsoever. Because non-Latin scripts are in demand, type designers have taken on the challenge of creating fonts not only for their native writing system, but also foreign ones. Whether it’s done for your own culture or another one, type design takes more than just attention to the visual details and knowing how to make the software do what you need. It takes research—a lot of research. And above all else, it takes an insatiable curiosity on the part of the designer.

GLOBAL TYPOGRAPHY

Mark Jamra and Neil Patel have been working together since January 2015, focusing on non-Latin scripts for what Patel calls “hot” or “emerging” markets: the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and also Chinese, Japanese and Korean (often abbreviated CJK).

Jamra and Patel met during the final production of Phoreus Cherokee, a project that marked the beginning of a new design journey. As Jamra recalls, “At TypeCon 2011, I saw a presentation by three guys from the Language Technology office of the Cherokee Nation in which they told their story of lobbying Apple to install a Cherokee font and keyboard on the iPhone and the iPad. They ended their presentation by asking type designers to design Cherokee fonts, because so few existed. I realized that this would be a particularly meaningful project, and so I immediately responded to their request.”

Phoreus Cherokee by JamraPatel

With Phoreus Cherokee, Jamra and Patel realized that they worked well as a team and formedJamraPatel, specializing in non-Latin scripts. The projects are “technologically complicated” according to Patel, “because of massive character sets or complex shaping.” For their work and the expansive size of the fonts they create, Patel finds that OpenType “has made it easier to develop and implement typefaces for these scripts.”

OpenType, unlike other font formats, can include over 60,000 glyphs. In addition to Phoreus Cherokee, JamraPatel has designed other typefaces, including the N’ko script used throughout West Africa for the Manding language. N’ko has 20–40 million speakers, Patel says. The studio designed N’ko for use in a range of devices, including smartphones.

iPhone keyboard with N’ko by JamraPatel.

With every design project, Patel says that he and Jamra must “cross a threshold.” Hours of research take place as they build up a network of trusted resources and subject matter experts. The entire process requires preparation, care and working with authorities. As Patel says, “It is not until after we feel like we have a sensibility for the culture and have studied enough manuscripts that we can start to actually design the glyphs.”

They take on the research together and, according to Patel, “scour more resources this way.” Their different perspectives enable them to get different insights, and they work with linguists more and more frequently. According to Jamra, “not only are they experts in the languages behind the writing system we’re working on, but our conversations with them provide us with a sense of the relationship of languages to each other and the political, ethnic and social landscapes that languages create and exist in.”

Pen exercises by Neil Patel done at the early stages of designing N’ko.

BEYOND FORM

Jamra believes that if you want to get into designing non-Latin scripts, then you need to do that at least on the graduate level. He cites the University of Reading’s Master of Arts in Typeface Design (MATD) program in the United Kingdom as “the most active” in doing this kind of work. At Reading, applicants who want to learn about scripts other than their own take on the challenge of designing type for global needs.

Associate professor Gerry Leonidas (foreground) and type design student Dot Georgoulas critique a design at the University of Reading.

University of Reading students Mariko Takagi (foreground) and Teja Smrekar write in Arabic.

Associate professor of typography Gerry Leonidas, who teaches at Reading, suggests that not everyone is cut out to become the kind of type designer who takes on research-intensive work. “Serious multi-script typeface design is an entirely different world from the display market graphic designers usually associate with typeface design. Not everybody can do this well. It’s a demanding, time-consuming process that requires guidance to navigate primary and secondary resources (when they exist) and to provide guidance through targeted questioning. There is no easy way, no shortcuts.”

Reading’s program is unique and has an exceptional reputation. Its graduates go on to work for large companies. Reading alum Antonio Cavedoni worked on Apple’s San Francisco typeface, used across Apple’s operating systems. Other Reading graduates start their own foundries, something Veronika Burian and José Scaglione did, teaming up to form TypeTogether.

“Typeface design is an enabling discipline: It only has value through the communication it makes possible.”

– Gary Leonidas

Leonidas says Reading attracts people who are intellectually curious. They take on the research and analysis necessary to design, but it’s more than the typefaces. “What we need to do is raise awareness of the wider typographic environment and conditions for visual communication in other cultures: the way typography and design interact with the history of a community, and the meaning of texts that look and behave in specific ways. Then the need for typefaces emerges from an understanding of the communication requirements of real people, not a gap in somebody’s type specimen. Typeface design is an enabling discipline: It only has value through the communication it makes possible.”

Adelle Sans Devanagari by TypeTogether.

TypeTogeher’s Bree was chosen as main typeface for body and titles in Deco, an ethical and ecologically aware French interior magazine.

Like others working in this area, TypeTogether, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, designs typefaces for a range of communication applications including Latin scripts as well as non-Latin. In addition to creating fonts for multiple writing systems for cultures all over the world, the team is also multicultural. Scaglione lives in Argentina and Burian in Spain, with other team members in Europe, the U.S. and China.

TypeTogether maintains communication among the group and works with clients from all over the world. Burian believes that “a good non-native type designer who has researched the writing system, exposed themselves to it and used the advice of excellent typographic consultants in the given script, is perfectly capable of designing a successful typeface for a script they don’t write/read.”

The Annual Report for The Savola Group, a major Saudi company, produced in Arabic and English editions using AwanZaman.

NEW TYPOGRAPHIC TERRITORIES

Like TypeTogether, Typotheque also designs multi-script typefaces. Based in the Netherlands, Typotheque designs not only Latin, but also Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek,
Hebrew, Inuktikut and Tamil, among others.

Typotheque’s Peter Biľak is quick to point out that living in Europe, if you travel a few hours in any direction, you’ll need to speak a different language. It’s a culturally diverse environment, especially when it comes to typography, unlike the U.S., where English is dominant. In 2002 Typotheque started working on Cyrillic, concurrent with advances brought about by the OpenType format.

The Cyrillic work gave Biľak confidence to work on Greek next, and in 2005 he took on Arabic, “which opened completely new territories,” Biľak says. He estimates that research was 90% of the work, with the actual production “fairly fast.” Since most of the font tools Biľak was using at the time were made primarily for designing the Latin-based fonts that read from left to right, Typotheque innovated. “When we got into Arabic, we developed our own tools, scripts and workflows that allowed right-to-left font production.”

In 2009 Biľak co-founded Indian Type Foundry (ITF) with Satya Rajpurohit. Biľak ran the company for four years, resigning in 2013. Biľak started TPTQ Arabic in 2015 with Kristyan Sarkis, a Lebanese-born designer in The Netherlands. A Typotheque sister company, TPTQ Arabic specializes in “high-quality Arabic typefaces and systems for bilingual typography.”

“Type design is more than a commercial enterprise—it is a cultural service.”

– Peter Biľak

As part of his ongoing research over the last five to six years, Biľak has taken on Hebrew. He sees the value in working on non-Latin scripts because of the possibility to make “a longer-lasting impact in communities, and to design something that hasn’t been done before.”

Making an impact and designing something new can happen with Latin or non-Latin typefaces, but the non-Latin scripts domain can provide the most opportunity since so few fonts exist there. Biľak estimates that 200,000 commercial fonts are available for Latin but if you need to work with Latin and Hebrew and Arabic, there are “just a handful.” Biľak and his associates put in a lot of time to create the fonts. Like other type designers, he recognizes the importance of the work done. “Type design is more than a commercial enterprise—it is a cultural service.” Biľak’s other endeavor, Fontstand, could also be seen as a cultural service, a promoter of internationalization. Fonstand includes Korean, Russian and Arabic type foundries among its many offerings. You can rent or purchase fonts from all over the world, and Biľak plans to introduce Israeli, Japanese and others, expanding its global community.

RHYTHM AND RESEARCH

Plenty of designers have created typefaces or are creating fonts for writing systems other than their own. But the question remains: Do natives have an advantage?

This is a question at the core of typographies.fr’s Colvert project, according to Jonathan Fabreguettes. “Colvert is comprised of four families: Colvert Arabic, Colvert Cyrillic, Colvert Greek and Colvert Latin. And I decided that each family would be made by a native speaker of the concerned writing system.”

The multilingual family was designed by Natalia Chuvatin (Cyrillic), Fabreguettes (Latin), Sarkis (Arabic), and Irene Vlachou (Greek). Colvert, an award-winning typeface, brought together a group of designers for a common cause, and the result deserves merit. It’s a coherent and robust typographic family for publishing and print uses with extended support for more than 100 languages.

Designing a typeface for your own language and writing system may come more naturally, but there is a hidden benefi t when designing non-native scripts. At the Type & Media program at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, Biľak teaches type designers who work with Latin, as well as Arabic and Greek. When tackling non-native writing systems they begin to see things differently, and the eye-opening experience helps them bring new things to their native script designs.

Seeing is instrumental to the design process, whether or not you know the writing system, whether or not you can read it. Consider Eudald Pradell, an 18th-century punchcutter in Spain, whom Biľak cites
as proof “that reading and seeing are two separate activities.” Pradell was illiterate, but produced what Biľak calls “one of the most admired typefaces ever cut in Spain.” Type design, whether for your native writing system or another, is about learning “the rhythm, flow and relationship of shapes,” Biľak says.

No matter how you see the shapes or what shapes you’re making, you have to be curious, always learning, seeing and making, always conducting research—lots and lots of research.

“If storytelling is the essential job of the copywriter, design is the starting point of the story; design can inform how a story plays out and how a brand touches people at every stage in their interaction with it.”

In today’s iterative, digital world, placeholder copy can no longer replace the need for strategic collaboration from the get-go. Interesting, compelling brand experiences start between copywriters and designers and end when both parties (or someone playing copywriter/designer) are confident in the outcome of the work. But which should come first, copy or design? Is working in parallel helpful or counterproductive, and what obstacles may hold us back from relying on each other’s strengths?

Here, a round up of Bay Area designers and art directors share their thoughts on what makes a great copywriter/designer duo, including a few thoughts on what they want copywriters to know most.

1. Less is more.

“Less is more when it comes to copy. The wordier the language gets, the more difficult it is for the designer to create a clean, compelling design. Short, punchy language allows the designer more freedom to utilize space creatively for imagery, font treatments and messaging hierarchy. It also allows the overall message to be quickly digestible in a world where we’re often forced to scan because of the amount of information being presented to us at any given moment.

My advice to copywriters and designers working together would be to clearly communicate with each other throughout the process and be open to each other’s opinions. If the design becomes cumbersome because of the amount of copy, the designer should recommend cuts. And if the copywriter doesn’t feel the imagery is playing off the messaging, he or she should feel free to ideate with the designer towards a better solution.”

2. Visual storytelling is important.

“When it comes to the copywriter and art director relationship, I think the best experiences happen when design decisions inform copy or vice versa. I’ve had experiences where I’ve been designing something without copy in mind, and certain writers have been able to pull inspiration from the visuals and can build a story around the work. On the other hand, visual storytelling is very important for me. I’ve also had experiences where getting a writer involved as soon as possible, even if it feels too soon, has driven my design process in directions I originally wouldn’t have gone because the copy was so solid and easy to build upon.”

3. Recognize the constraints your team members face.

“There are real limitations associated with traditional mediums like print. The length of an article dictates the space available for headlines, subheads, body copy, captions, pull quotes, and everything else needed to properly explore and expound upon the content.

Screens, big and small, have changed the way we engage with content. They let us scroll, swipe, and animate information, and design and copy’s roles have become less about collaboration and more about flexibility. Building dynamic visual houses for content that doesn’t currently exist is a core element of the screen-based designer. Copy’s ability to tell a story that echoes beautifully inside its house can inspire new narrative styles and elements.

Understanding the constraints your team members face helps you anticipate and course-correct potential rough spots before they become problems. Quick iterations where copy and design react to each other shortens cycles, feedback lessens, and a unified result is achieved.”

4. Familiarize with each other’s areas of expertise.

“Truly wonderful creative work — those works that move you emotionally — have copy and design fully integrated based on the shared concept. I see it sort of like how a pen and ink can’t draw anything without each other. Great copy adds depth to and expands upon what’s communicated by its paired imagery. If you type the word “apple” above an image of an apple, it’s not impactful. Try something like “The last meal” next to the apple and then you’re starting to tell an interesting story that relies on the strength of both the copy and the imagery.

Familiarize with your teammate’s area of expertise and role in the organization. It’s hard to work effectively with someone if you don’t know what they do or why they do it. Start a project together with shared objectives, and think about how one’s craft can support the other’s in pursuit of achieving the goal. Collaborate from the very beginning through the very end.”

5. Make time for in-person kick-offs or try working side-by-side.

“I think it’s important for a designer and writer to sit down when a project is first being discussed and talk through the whole idea. That way both people walk away with a sense of what the end product will look like and sound like. I’ve been in a few situations where the copy has come in way too long, but it’s either too good or contains too much important information to cut, and in that case it’s up to the designer to make it work.

I’ve found that working right next to a writer during a really tight deadline works well. Sometimes the writer will be editing as I’m designing – close communication is important. If the writer or designer is remote or always bogged down in meetings, it’s hard to carve out time to discuss how the copy is working with the design. Being able to quickly discuss something, remove roadblocks, or just try some new ideas will only happen if writers and designers make the time for it.”

6. Keep the bottom-line objective in mind.

“As a User Experience Designer, I like to build a wireframe first, then kick it off with a copywriter, explaining what we want to achieve at different touch points. Then I let them run with it. I encourage copywriters to think about if the content we’re creating is informational or educational. For example, are we telling the customer how to do something or aiming to inspire an action? Always keep in mind the bottom-line objective of what we want the user to do.

Other times, I like to collaborate and work in real-time with a writer and/or other collaborators. I’ve also liked working brainstorm-style where we all contribute our areas of expertise and then work in parallel from there. This is common when you’re pumping out projects fast, sprint-style.”

– Erin Jones, User Experience Designer – Art.com

Whether you’re a junior copywriter, experienced designer, or a a hybrid copywriter/designer in a multi-hat wearing startup role, take it from these guys. A successful marriage of effective copy and creatively innovative design will always require collaboration, flexibility, and innate understanding of your partner’s role. Let’s shoot for that.

For more from Teresa Iezzi on the copywriter/designer duo, head right here.

]]>Pierre Katz could be considered one of world’s greatest “facial” rejuvenators of luxury brands. But his tools are typography and elements of design rather than Botox or a scalpel.

Katz, who is headquartered in Paris, is often called in when a new owner of a brand wants a new look to signal a new reign, when an old owner wants to give the brand a new direction, or simply when someone decides that the grand old dame needs a pretty young face again. When bottles are involved—such as with Champagnes, spirits or even perfume—the bottle itself may need changing along with the label and exterior packaging.

Recently, Katz expanded from being a studio into forming an agency, Agence Pierre Katz, “to offer bespoke expertise across a range of disciplines that are complementary to the know-how the agency currently proposes—brand identity, packaging, artistic direction, collateral materials and brand strategy.”

When he gets an assignment, Katz first likes to do research and ask questions. Why was this symbol used in the first place? Are there old design elements that should be resurrected? But most of all, what is the purpose behind the redesign and what is the redesign meant to accomplish?

We asked Katz to explain some of his more-recent work, especially the before-and-after brand looks. His remarks have been slighted edited and condensed.

Remy Martin Accord Royal – Redesign

Pierre Katz: Since the centaur is how most people know the brand, I used the Rémy Martin name as a pedestal for the mythological creature, just changing the shadows and simplifying to make it more readable. The redesign for the letters was inspired by the proportions of the Roman capital letters, giving the name a more architectural dimension. I also condensed the name to voluntarily neutralize the readability, to make the name more vertical, like a colonnade that holds a centaur that also was made bigger. Finally, I introduced big and small capitals to ennoble the name and create a rhythm. ‘Fine champagne cognac’ was redesigned to create a greater contrast with the Rémy Martin name in a sans serif typeface but with up strokes and down strokes that give it a non-mechanical, elegant and humanistic quality.

Before:

After:

Château de Pommard – Redesign

Katz: For Château de Pommard, everything needed to be changed. There was a new owner who wanted to restore the prestige of the domain, so I found a coat of arms for the château that needed restoring—the design was clogged—and we replaced the Château de Pommard name with a motto to fit the heraldic tradition. The idea was to create a singular silhouette for the bottle, and we needed to add more quality and personality. I changed the label to a business card size with a textured paper to make it more contemporary and qualitative, very different from traditional Burgundy bottles. I chose an off-white color to evoke the color of the great Château de Pommard wine, the flagship of the domain.

Before:

After:

Lejay Crème de Cassis – Redesign

Katz: The brand Lejay-Lagoute needed a make-over to harmonize its signs, become more upscale and be desirable for international expansion. I couldn’t find any historic evidence on the significance of the monk. The brand that called him “legendary,” but it’s hard to know what for! On an old label for the brand, I found a little jay engraving that suddenly appeared like an obvious choice: a perfect fit for Lejay. It’s a bird you can find anywhere on the planet and a naturalistic symbol that unconsciously says, ‘If this blackcurrant is good enough for the bird, it’s good enough for you.’ To design the logo, I chose a 19th Century Elzevir typeface found in the brand’s archives and redesigned it to make it larger, more generous. (The little triangular serifs also recall the tiny claws on the bird’s foot.)

Before:

After:

Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blanc – Redesign

Katz: Ruinart wanted to bring back their packaging ‘into the light.’ most of all on their flagship, the Blanc de Blancs. All the signs were already there, legitimate, full of character. I cleaned up the coat of arms to make it denser and removed the founding date and put it instead at its base. I redesigned the letters of the Ruinart name, which was in a very characteristic gothic style, to a style of gothic that does not evoke anything rough or Germanic, but rather something ancient and venerable. So I redesigned each letter to make them more luminous, graceful, less-crooked. I also changed the architecture on the label, taking the ‘Blanc de Blancs’ to underneath the Champagne appellation to properly qualify it. There is not a lot of information on this label, but the organization of four different typefaces also gives it its flavor and its quality.

Before:

After:

Favarger – Redesign

Katz: Favarger is the single chocolate factory truly from Geneva, and so we needed to make Favarger the ‘official’ chocolate of the city, the capital of luxury. So I proposed a design of a golden heart encompassing the eagle and the key of Geneva, a symbol that could both mean ‘I love Geneva’ or ‘I love Favarger,’ a risky move. But since Favarger was a legitimate, old and respected house of the region, it was worth taking the risk. I kept the founding date but also added the name of Geneva to clearly reassert its proud, century-old origins. The mention ‘chocolats et cacaos’ reassert the métier of Favarger. The typeface is typically Swiss deeply functional with a minimal sans serif look. The symmetry of the ‘F’ and the ‘R’ participate in this architectural impression, like two pillars holding the brand together.

Before:

After:

Jour d’Hermès – Logo Creation

We also asked Katz to explain briefly how he works in creating a new expression within an existing luxury brand, in this case a new perfume for the Hermès family.

Pierre Katz: A fragrance’s name bears the brand’s values, and it incarnates an archetype or an inspiration of its own – a certain type of woman, of man, a sensation or an abstract idea. Signs ennoble brands and give them character. A brand’s or a fragrance’s logo is their symbolic face. This project bore different challenges, because it was a complete creation that needed to express what an ‘Hermès day’ would look like. As it is also an ode to the light of day, the name needed to be very luminous, delicate and promising. So I was inspired to create a sophisticated character in a slanted version instead of an Italic to give it an élan, an energy. I wanted to give the name a bold spacing to make it breathe and increase its luminosity. The tall ‘J’ also creates a rupture that is the beginning from which the rest of the name unfolds, like the beginning of a new story or a new day. In fact, I treated Jour d’Hermès in a literary manner, like if it was the title of an epic novel. It’s the least you can do for a great feminine fragrance by the Hermès house!